A Sense of Belonging
by Crystal
Summary: Story #2 in Jane Land


Jane stood, waiting in the cemetary, looking all around her. She had to admit, she was getting pretty bored. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, she was tackled from behind and knocked onto the ground. Her assailant stood up and reached down to help her up.  
  
"Shit! You attacked me!" She said as she was brushing dirt off of her clothes.  
  
"That is why a Slayer must be on her guard at all times. You never know what might sneak up on you."  
  
She finished brushing herself off and looked down at the ground. The assailant reached over to her face and turned it upward. "What?"  
  
She looked up and paused a moment before asking, "I'm going to be a bad Slayer, aren't I?"  
  
He looked down at her. She looked so small, looking up at him with big green eyes, full of concern. He could tell that she truly wanted to be good at this. He smiled gently and hugged her. "Everyone starts out with some bumps along the way. You'll get that hang of it soon." He let her go and stood away. "Here, try some of the drills that I taught you earlier."  
  
As she started the drills, she suddenly heard the sound of something beeping.  
  
What's that? she thought. Hmmm...  
  
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Jane woke up to the steady beeping of her alarm clock. Argh! I hate these dreams! They're too real! she thought as she slowly got out of bed and made her way over to the minifridge. She opened it and took out her daily morning milkshake, noticing that she was almost all out. I'll have to get some today. Jane got a shower and dressed just in time to hear a knocking on the door. When she answered it, John was standing there, smiling.  
  
"Gentle swain, at thy request, I am here."  
  
"Cute. I think you've watched Sabrina one too many times."  
  
"I think I have, too. So, Giles bailed on us, huh?"  
  
"Yep. I think he had company this weekend, so it's just us." She looked around. "Okay, you grab those bags while I check out and then we'll head out to the apartment."  
  
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When they arrived at the apartment, the moving van was already there. John got out and inspected what was inside and stood by one of the larger pieces of furniture.   
  
"Okay, I think I'll take this and you can take something a little smaller. You do look pretty strong... for a girl that is."  
  
She gave him a hard shove as he took a nereby box and began moving stuff.  
  
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Around 5:30 that night, in a living room full of boxes, Jane and John sat on two stools, eating pizza.  
  
"Okay," he said as he munched on his pizza. "So... you're a Slayer. Explain."  
  
She laughed as she swallowed a bite. "Okay, the reader's digest version: there are bad things, particularly vampires, running around everywhere. The Slayer is here to fight them. Explaination done."  
  
"Wow, vampires are real."  
  
"Yep."  
  
"And they bite people."  
  
"Uh-huh."  
  
"Yuck."  
  
She nodded. "That about sums it up."  
  
"And so Giles is what, your chaperone?"  
  
She laughed again. "Something like that. He's a Watcher. The Watchers find the next Slayer, inforn her of her special destiny..." she made air quotes around the word destiny, "and train them."  
  
"The next Slayer?"  
  
She shrugged. "Well, there's supposedly only one at a time. When one dies... the next is called. Sometimes it gets screwed up, though."  
  
John looked at her. "And how often does time happen?"  
  
"A new Slayer?" He nodded. "Well, the average lifespan of a Slayer is about three and a half years."  
  
"And you've been one for how long?"  
  
"Little less than a year."  
  
He thought a moment. "Wow. So you probably won't live to twenty."  
  
"Talk about your high-risk employment, huh?"  
  
He laughed nervously. She seemed so... at ease with the fact that she was going to die.  
  
"Hey," she said, almost reading his thoughts. "That's just the average. There was one Slayer that lived almost 15 years after she was called. And then there are some that live 15 days. The last Slayer, she lived 7 years and some people think she's still alive. Trust me, I'm not dying anytime soon."  
  
They munched on the pizza in silence, John comtemplating all this new knowledge. "Okay, so I get all that, but the big question is... where do you get all the money to buy your own apartment? And where are your parents?"  
  
She was silent for a moment. Then, softly, she said, "They died when I was thirteen. But they both had good life insurance policies."  
  
D'oh! he thought. "Sorry," he said. "I didn't know."  
  
She avoided his gaze, instead focusing intently on her pizza. "Yeah. Listen, I'm kind of tired. I think I'm just going to crash for tonight. Thanks for helping, thought. I'll... I'll see you Monday." While she was saying this, she slowly made her way to the front door, urging him out.  
  
He could see that he had stepped on a touchy subject and rose. "Okay. Sure you don't want any help tomorrow?"  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine." She smiled, but a cloud still hung over her.  
  
"Are you absolutely sure, cause I'm a Feng-Shui fool." He made a karate pose and finally got a laugh from her.  
  
"I'm good. Thanks."  
  
"Okay, Monday."  
  
"Monday."  
  
He walked out and she shut the door behind him. She stood at the door a moment and took a deep breath before heading back to the pizza.  
  
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Third period Monday, Giles was surprized to see John walking into the library.  
  
"Hey, Book-man!" he called.  
  
"Hello, John. What brings you here?"  
  
John walked up and leaned on Giles' desk. "Doin some research."  
  
"Well, that's good. What's the topic?"  
  
"Ohh... Jane. So, what's her story?"  
  
Giles sighed, disappointed. "I thought you were doing real research," he commented as he rose from his desk and began walking away.  
  
John quickly followed. "No, seriously. We were talking Saturday night and then I mentioned her parents and she said they were dead and got all silent. I mean, does this girl have some major skeletons in her closet, cause I want to know if I'm dealing with a psycho here." Giles turned and paused. John looked at him . "Hey, if I don't hear it from you, I'm sure I can get a friend to hack into it on the web."  
  
Giles sighed. "Fine. She lived in Seattle with her parents from the time she was born. Her father was a lawyer and her mother was an interior decorater, I believe. They both died in a car accident when she was thirteen. She lived under the care of her aunt until she was 16 when she got legal emancipation. She also got the calling that she was a Slayer around the same time. From what I've heard, he Watcher, Bryan, became her legal guardian. Until he died, that is, and that's what brought her to New Mexico."  
  
"Wow. Her parents and her Watcher."  
  
"And they were very close. She seems to be very touichy about him as well, so I would mention him, either, if I were you."  
  
"Noted. Wow. So, she's basically had a shitty life."  
  
"In so many words... yes."  
  
"The bell rang as the two men stood there, comtemplating the bad life of Jane. A moment later, as John was leaning, Jane entered bouncily."  
  
"Hey," she said, then at seeing John and Giles together, she added, "What? Did we all have a little pow-wow that I didn't know about?"  
  
"No, I was just doing research... history," he added as he held up a book.  
  
Jane looked at the book he was holding. "That's English."  
  
"That's what I meant. Bye." he said as he left quickly.   
  
She watched him leave and turned to GIles. "Weird." She walked over to his desk and popped up on it. "So... I went patrolling last night."  
  
"Good for you. Would you like a doggie biscut?"  
  
Jane looked at him. "I make an effort to do good Slayer work and you ridicule me? I'm hurt. Deeply."  
  
"I'm sure."  
  
"Okay, so to continue, I went patrolling last night and got my ass kicked by a vamp who couldn't have been more than a week old."  
  
Giles was confused. "And this is good?"  
  
"No, but it brought to my attention exactly how out of shape I am. I need to start training again. So, Watcher-guy, that's your job. Train me. Or at least point me to a good gym."  
  
Giles thought a moment. "Have you checked you apartment complex? There might be a gym in there."  
  
"Good idea."  
  
"On a similar note, what weapons are you trained in?"  
  
"You name it, I can probably slay with it."  
  
Giles began thinking of weapons. "Well, from last Saturday, I know you can handle yourself with a sword."  
  
"My killing mode of choice, if I might add."  
  
Giles looked at her strangely. "Yess.... well, how about crossbow?"  
  
"All bout that."  
  
"Missle launcher, by any chance."  
  
She was surprized by this choice. "Um... no. Sorry. Not in my repertoire."  
  
"Just curious. Anything else?"  
  
She thought a moment. "I've shot some interesting things out of a shotgun. Stakes, silverware, pencils. Regular bow and arrow, I'm goog with. I've used am axe once or twice. Spears..."  
  
She was going to continue right on as Giles cut her off. "Okay, so you're good with weapons."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Then I'll see about finding you a place to train after school."  
  
"Neat. So I'll patrol tonight and kick ass tomorrow." She hopped off of his desk as the bell rang. "Sounds good to me. See ya."  
  
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Late that night, Jane walked silently through the graveyard. She slowed as she heard someone walking up behind her. She got her stake out and ready as John walked out from behind a tree.  
  
"Whoa, hey. Friendly being, not a demon."  
  
She put her stake away. "It's not a good idea to sneak up on a gilr with a stake."  
  
"I'll keep that in mind."  
  
She kept walking as he went with her. "What are you daing here, anyway?" she asked.  
  
He shrugged. I thought I'd do a little patrolling with you. Back you up, you know."  
  
"Not a good idea. Patrolling is kind of a one person thing. Anyone tagging along is just a liability."  
  
"Do you want me to go home and get my mommy to sign a permission slip?" he asked in a baby voice.  
  
She stopped for a moment and glared at him before comtinuing on her way.  
  
"Oh, come on! Are you still ticked about Saturday?"  
  
She stopped and turned on him. "No. I don't care about Saturday! I just want you to go away before you get hurt."  
  
John stood there a moment, hurt, before turning and walking away.  
  
Shit, Jane thought. I didn't mean it like that.  
  
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John walked through the graveyard, still hurt. Jeez. I feel like a puppy that just pissed all over the carpet. "Go away before you get hurt." Oh yeah. She's all, "Hey, I'm bad, I'm the Slayer. I hit vampires with a little piece of wood. Ooh, you'll get hurt little boy." Whatever. Yeah, I was good enough to save her that night at Kaos, and she doesn't even thank me for it, but if I try a little vampire hunting, then I'm no good. I'm a "liability."  
  
John turned around and yelled, "Yeah, well, I'll find a demon and kill it myself! HA!"  
  
As he turned back around, he bumped into a big, nasty, green demon.  
  
He gulped.  
  
"Oh, shit."  
  
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"...find a demon and kill it myself! HA!"  
  
Jane heard John's shout behind her and rolled her eyes. Male macho ego. He's just like all other guys, she thought and kept walking. A split second later, she heard his scream.  
  
"Damn!" Jane cursed under her breath as she ran to find him.  
  
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John was crouched on the ground, wiping clear gunk out of his eyes as Jane ran up.  
  
"What happened?"  
  
Full of male pride, John stood up. "Nothing. I'm fine."  
  
She pointed at the gunk on his face and now hands. "Then what's that?"  
  
"Nothing. The thing just spit on me or something."  
  
Jane looked alarmed. "It spit on you?"  
  
John was nonplussed. "Yeah. So?"  
  
Jane grabbed his arm and pulled him along as she walked to her car. "We've got to go see Giles."  
  
He shook her arm off, trying to be manly. "Why? It's just a little spit. My baby sister's done worse."  
  
Jane stopped and turned to him. "Correction: It's demon spit. You don't know what it could do." She took his arm and continued to pull him to her car. "Just be glad that you face hasn't melted off or something."  
  
He looked up, suddenly concerned as she opened the car door and pushed him in. "Could that really happen?"  
  
She got in the car and slammed the door. "Yes."  
  
He swallowed hard. "Then what are we waiting for? To Giles' house we go."  
  
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The rapping at Giles' door was drilling a hole through his skull as he got out of his bed and walked toward the door. He opened his door and was almost non-surprized to see Jane standing there. I forgot, he thought. I have a Slayer again. I will now never get another good night's sleep. He was surprized, however, when she pushed John into the room. "I'm almost afraid to ask, but what?"  
  
Jane sat John on Giles' couch. "A demon spit on him."  
  
"Oh, dear." Giles was immediately awake and at attention. "What kind?"  
  
Jane shrugged. "Don't know. I wasn't there."  
  
"That's not good."  
  
John interrupted impatiently. "Hey! Can we hurry this up? I want to know if my nose is going to fall of or something."  
  
They both paused. Giles began walking to his books. "What did the demon look like?"  
  
Jane and John stood and walked over to the table where Giles was bringing the books. John started describing it. "It was tall. Like a foot taller than me, so, like seven feet, maybe. Green. Bright green, like grass. Messed up mouth."  
  
Jane interrupted while Giles searched through his books. "Messed up how?"  
  
"Weird, like not... open... I don't know."  
  
Giles stopped looking. "What else?"  
  
John shook his head. "That's it. The demon pretty much pit and ran."  
  
Giles walked around the table to him and began looking at the demon's saliva. "And no side effects?"  
  
"You mean like my nose falling off? Not yet, and I'd like to keep it that way. Why? What's going to happen?"  
  
"Until we know what kind of demon we're dealing with, we don't know."  
  
Jane, who had taking over looking through the books while the two men talked, looked up. "Okay, I've found a couple it could be. There's a Kloran demon."  
  
Giles interrupted. "But John would have to be blind by now."  
  
Jane continued. "Ezactly. So, there's a Harathas demon. It's basically harmless, but it does spit as a defense mechanism. This doesn't say it has any side effects or anything."  
  
John perked up. "Really?"  
  
Giles took the book from her and read it for himself. "Yes, it appears so."  
  
John jumped up and got in Jane's face. "See! I told you I was fine."  
  
She pushed him away and got up. "You were lucky."  
  
"No, you were just wrong!" He turned to Giles. "So, I'm good to go, right?"  
  
Giles nodded. "Well, if it was a Harathas demon, then yes, you are."  
  
"Good. I'm out of here," he said as he walked out, slamming the door.  
  
Jane stood and counted. "3... 2... 1..."  
  
The door opened and John walked back in. "I don't have my car."  
  
He looked at Jane. She shook her head. "Oh, don't even look at me, you pompous ass."  
  
John was about the retort when Giles spoke up. "I'll take you, John... before Jane kills you."  
  
Jane smiled thinly. "Good idea. Thanks, Gile," she said as she walked out the door.  
  
They heard her car engine turn over as John turned to Giles. "Are you sure she isn't a psycho?"  
  
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"Why did you do that!?"  
  
Giles looked up from his desk, surprized at the tone Jane was taking. "What do you mean?"  
  
"Why did you have to tell him that he was okay?"  
  
Giles was cenfused, to say the least. "Just a guess: because he was?" Jane let out an esasperated sigh which confused Giles even further. "What happened?"  
  
Jane walked around his desk and pulled up a chair. "He followed me when I went patrolling last night. I've always gone solo. I mean, yeah, he didn't get hurt last night, but he could have. That's the point. Couldn't you have at least told him he'd be throwing up for acouple of days? Something? Maybe teach him a lesson?"  
  
Giles sighed. "I'm sorry Jane. I didn't understand. Maybe we can devise a code to decipher Jane-speak to aviod confusion next time."  
  
Jane glared at him. "Sarcasm was not necessary."  
  
"But it was pertainent. I'm sorry, but it seems that he was only trying to help. Why are you so resistant to any help?"  
  
"I like to do things on my own. When people help, they get hurt."  
  
"But John didn't."  
  
"But he could have!"  
  
Giles was about to retort, but there was a sudden scratching noise at the door that caused them both to look over. Finally, the scratching stopped and the door slowly opened. John walked in, his hands held out in front of him. He walked into the room tentaviely. "Um, Giles? Jane?"  
  
"Yes," they both answered at once, curious as to what was going on.  
  
"I've got a little problem here--- Ahh!" he yelled as he ran into a bookcase."  
  
"Oh, dear." Giles said as they ran over to help him.  
  
"Um... I can't see. Is that bad?" John asked as Jane helped him up.  
  
"Yes." She turned to Giles. "I told you so!"  
  
They helped him over to a chair as Giles thought. "It must have been a baby Kloran.  
  
John interrupted. "A baby! It was seven feet tall!!"  
  
Jane laughed. "Welcome to the world of demons."  
  
Giles nodded. "Quite. A baby's saliva wouldn't have taken effect as quickly, accounting for why you seemed fine last night."  
  
John shook his head. "All I care about is how do we fix it?" he asked impatiently.  
  
"Well, we'd have to look that up in the book."  
  
Jane grabbed her bag and keys. "A school-employee sanctioned trip off campus. I'm on top of it."  
  
Jane started walking away and heard John whine, "Well, what am I supposed to do for now?"  
  
Jane turned around. "Just stay there, and don't forget: I told you so!"  
  
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Jane returned to the library an hour and a half later.  
  
"Okay. I found something that might help." She put the book down. "And I got the stuff for it, too."  
  
"Oh, well what did the book say?" Giles asked, looking at her bag. The things inside it did not look like they were for a spell.  
  
Jane frowned. "Well, nothing, actually."  
  
John wailed. "WHAT! You mean I'm blind for good?"  
  
Giles was throughly confused. "Then you haven't found anything?"  
  
Jane smiled. "No, no I have. See," she pointed at the book. "This isn't your book. This is Bryan's. And it's useful." Giles shot her a dirty look. She continued, undaunted. "Well, it seems that the Kloran demon is pretty benevolent. Keeps to itself. Hides in the forest mainly, which begs the question, what is one doning in New Mexico, but moving on..."  
  
"Please!" John demanded.  
  
"They use their saliva when they're frightened. Purely defense. It works kind of like mace. The saliva blinds whatever the Kloran sees as it's attacker so it can escape, unharmed. It should wear off after about a day. So until then..." she took a pair of sunglasses out of her bag and placed them on his head. "Until then, you're Stevie Wonder."  
  
She started to laugh (and even Giles smirked a bit) as John sat there, furious. He threw off the glasses and stood up. "I'm glad to see that you two can enjoy my misfortune."  
  
He started to leave and ran into the door. Giles and Jane stifled laughs as he found the handle and exited.  
  
Giles motioned to the door. "You'd better..."  
  
Jane nodded. "Yeah. Before he hurts himself... again."  
  
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She left the library and found him waiting right outside the door. She cleared her throat to let him know that she was there.  
  
"I can't see. I can't walk, or I'll bump into things. So I'm staying right here. This sucks," he stated, matter-of-factly.  
  
"That's a good idea: staying here," she replied.  
  
"But I'm not talking to you."  
  
Jane sighed. "Whay don't you let me take you home? You can vege out, listen to music, sleep and when you wake up tomorrow, you'll probably be seeing again."  
  
"Probably?"  
  
"Tomorrow morning or afternoon." She paused. "How else are you going to get home?"  
  
John grumbled and reached into his pocket. "Fine." He handed her his car keys.  
  
She took him arm to lead him. "Come on, Ray Charles."  
  
"Again... not funny."  
  
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She took his car and he gave her directions on how to get to his house. She started to drive into the area known as the Plantation and slowed.  
  
"This is the Plantation." she told him.  
  
"Yep. Go in, 3rd Street on the right."  
  
She shook her head, disbelieveing as she turned into the neighboorhood. "So, you're one of the bratty Plantation kids, huh?"  
  
"Yep."  
  
"Well, you're just full of surprizes, aren't you?"  
  
"Uh-huh."  
  
She turned down the street. "Okay, I turned. Where to?"  
  
"Fifth house on the left."  
  
They pulled into the driveway of a beautiful brick house and Jane helped him out of the car. They walked up to the house and John unlocked the door and walked in. Jane stood there, looking at the house until John said, "Come in."  
  
She walked in slowly. She didn't know what, but she was really surprized. He didn't seem like one of the bratty rich kids that she knew plenty of back home. Well, at least, not all the time. She was looking around as he turned to her.  
  
"Hey, my room's upstairs. Can you help me up there just so I don't break my neck or something?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
She helped him up the stairs and into his room. He sat down on his bed and she noticed videos on top of his TV.  
  
"What's this?" she asked.  
  
"Dunno. I can't see, remember?"  
  
"The videos."  
  
He laughed shyly. "Nothing."  
  
She scanned the titles quickly and groaned. "Oh, you aren't really watching these, are you?"  
  
He shrugged. "Call it research."  
  
She took the stack of videos and sat down next to him. "Let's take a look at what you got here. Hmm. Blade. Pretty good. But real vamps can't regenerate whole appendages like that. They live, but minus an arm or two."  
  
"But the head thing works?"  
  
"Yep. Kills em dead." She put it down and looked at another. "Highlander?"  
  
"Well, I saw you do the head thing at Kaos, and the thing about the only one until one dies."  
  
She laughed shortly. "But Slayers are not immortal, unfortunately. Lost Boys? Yuck! This has got to be the worst movie about vampires ever made. Yeah, their faces change, but sorry, real vamps can't fly. Demon Knight and Bordello of Blood? Bad B-movie and soft porn. Nothing accurate there. Dracula?" She paused and looked at him.  
  
"What? It's Dracula. The definitave vampire movie."  
  
"No. It's full of fabrication. Vamps do not turn into bats, wolves or anything else. Interview With The Vampire. Gotta love Anne Rice. This one's pretty good. But vamps don't really move that fast. They're just really quiet. And they don't think half as much as in the movie. See, real vamps, they don't know not to like what they are, like Louis, or that little girl. They're more like Lestat. The thing that all of these movies get wrong is that a vampire is no londer a person. It's just an empty body and this demon, a vampire, has set up shop in it. They're the hermit crabs of the demon world, only with big nasty teeth."  
  
"Makes you wonder why they don't make movies about cute, fluffy vampires, huh?"  
  
They laughed together and when their laughter subsided, Jane took his hand. "I'm sorry for being such a bitch about you tagging along, but you do understand why, don't you?"  
  
"Oh, yeah. But, I was just trying to help."  
  
"Yeah, I know, but I'm just... I'm not used to friends... helping me. Back home, I pretty much didn't have friends. Just my Watcher."  
  
So that's why they were so close. No parents, no friends. Only her Watcher. He felt for her. "Oh."  
  
"But I guess it would be okay... to have a little back up. And some company, too. You have no idea how boring it can get on a slow night."  
  
"I'll bring the board games."  
  
She laughed shortly. "But you've got to be careful, okay?"  
  
He gave her a little salute. "I swear, from now on, I'll be a boy scout."  
  
She smiled. "Okay, well, I have to go now. I'm going to workout before patrol."  
  
She said goodbye and started walking out, but he stopped her. "Wait."  
  
"What?"  
  
"You drove my car over here. How are you going to get home?"  
  
She shrugged. "I was going to jog."  
  
He hobbled over to her at the door. "Take my car. Just come get me tomorrow when I can see again. I'll call you." he smiled. "Of course, now I'll nedd your number."  
  
She smirked. "How could you see it?"  
  
"Good point. Tell me and I'll remember."  
  
"555-0036"  
  
"555-0036," he repeated. "Got it."  
  
"Hopefully."  
  
"Ha Ha."  
  
Jane touched his hand and left.  
  
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As Jane patrolled that night, she tought about what Giles had said. Why am I so resistant to help? Good question. Maybe it won't be so bad to have some help. Someone to keep me grounded, sane. A friend. I think I can do that. Yeah... I definately can do that."  



End file.
